Children from invalid marriages have right to property, rules SC
Supreme Court on Friday held that children born out of void or voidable marriages (invalid) are legitimate and can claim a right in their parents' ancestral property in joint Hindu families following the Mitakshara system of law.
The judgment was delivered by a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud. The bench ruled that a child under relevant sections of the Hindu Marriage Act (HMA) would be considered a legitimate kin under the Hindu Succession Act.
The SC further ruled that Section 6 of the Hindu Succession Act which deals with interest in coparcenary property, lays down a legal fiction that coparcenary property would be treated as if partition had taken place.
The judgment further said that provisions of the Hindu Succession Act will have to be harmonised with the provisions of Hindu Marriage Act to ensure that a child under the HMA has a right in the property of their parents.
The bench, however, clarified that children born out of void/voidable marriages will not have any rights on the property of any other person in the family.
The apex court further clarified in its ruling that a child born from a void/voidable marriage does not ipso facto become a coparcener (joint heir in Hindu law) in the Hindu Mitakshara joint family.
The top court's verdict came on a 2011 plea pertaining to the vexatious legal issue of whether non-marital children were entitled to a share in the ancestral property of their parents under Hindu laws.
According to the Hindu law, the man and woman in a void marriage do not have the status of husband and wife. However, they have the status of husband and wife in the voidable marriage.
In a void marriage, no decree of nullity is required to annul the marriage. While, in a
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